In advance of the 2016 NAMM Show, Korg today introduced the a pair of new wireless MIDI controllers, the nanoKEY Studio & nanoKONTROL Studio controllers.

The nanoKey Studio is a wireless mobile keyboard controller, designed for wireless use.

Above the keyboard are eight velocity-sensitive trigger pads that are designed not only for recording drums, but also chords. The Chord Scale function automatically assigns the ‘best’ chords based on your selected key and scale, aiding composition. The nanoKey Studio also includes a KAOSS-style touchpad and eight assignable knobs.

If you look at the specs these are ‘Apple bluetooth MIDI complaint’ which is likely going to become the standard for bluetooth MIDI. I think a few solutions may already exist to get that working with a hardware keyboard directly over bluetooth MIDI. If they don’t work they soon will, you are talking a couple of MIDI cables going into a bluetooth box that is Apple MIDI complaint, that is cheap and easy. I imagine that in a few years all synths will have bluetooth MIDI as standard. The omission of MIDI connectors is glaring, but firstly they are DAW controls, and it would be possible to get an apple bluetooth solution up and running now, or real soon. Not really a deal breaker

yes invest in a $200+ dongle in order to run the $130 midi controller, and yet another piece of gear to drag to the gig, that idea works for some but seriously how much more could the cost have come out to if they included a real midi jack, or at least one of the 1/8″ midi jacks that can be cheaply broken out like the new electribes. real midi is not going away anytime soon. yeah this blows for windows users, macs are nice but the whole world isn’t apple

That renders the whole wireless thing sort of pointless. If you want physical MIDI connections (and I share your preference on this) then there are lots of other options out there. These devices are rather small and fiddly but they’re great for someone working on their tablet or phone who don’t have a dedicated studio space. I’m just looking over at my own gear and I count over 40 power/MIDI/audio cables so I’m not going to blame Korg for offering a wireless alternative.

I, for one, hope no synth ever contains a bluetooth receiver. There are enough parts that have potential to go wrong in a performance without wireless MIDI, thanks. Same for midi ‘expander’ boxes. Arturia was nice enough to include a real MIDI out on the beatstep, so I am happy to give them my business (it’s pretty great) and use for my octatrack. Simple as that.

These are DAW controllers that have an option of Bluetooth MIDI, getting down on it for not having MIDI connectors for hardware synths is like complaining about a new van for not having seats in the back – it is a van, fit your own back seats or just buy a f*cking minibus – at a higher cost.

The whole world isn’t here to serve the needs of the few, everyone shouldn’t be punished and buy higher cost hardware, with connections they won’t use, because someone thinks every product in the world should service their own personal needs. That’s just child like behavior – they ain’t that, they are this.

I don’t want to pay over the odds of stuff to service the few, and it’s not like you don’t have options for this – admittedly at a higher cost, as this would be if it had MIDI out.

Product description does not list Control Surface functionality for Ableton Live yet Korg bundles Live Lite with many of their products. Hopefully it’s coming later but if not they really dropped the ball on this one.
It would also be nice to be able to integrate these with Sync-able korg products like the Volcas or electribes without the use of a laptop but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

good point, control voltage is the future, tie the sync into transport somehow, and plop a nice big 5 pin midi din connector on it too for good measure and control of synthesizers from the last 30 years

Product description says “about ten hours depending on use”.
I have a regular bluetooth keyboard that I use constantly at least 8 hours a day and I change the batteries in it about once every six months.

playing an 11 hour show, might be a good idea to plug in and run power from the ac that the show is providing in that case, i wouldn’t even trust my ancient c and d cell gear to last over 10 hours straight in a gig situation

Agreed; Korg’s been making battery op gear for a while now and it baffles me that they continue to use wasteful AA battery power rather than a rechargeable li-ion battery. I would re-buy my volcas and my electribe just to get this feature.

I’ve seen a few USB battery boxes that can act as a hub. Like those batteries you get to emergency charge the phone with a bigger battery and a few ports – so technical connections and power, which is what we want. Never tried any of them.

ugh… wireless everything..
Wireless = less control, less stability, less security, harder to troubleshoot, potential interference.
I still don’t think bluetooth is reliable enough for everything to be coming out with it.
Nothing beats a good old wire. Nobody likes wires, but when you have to trouble shoot, it just makes more sense.
Can’t understand this. Obsession with bluetooth is like obsession with self serve cash registers, self serve fountain sodas and self serve gas. It’s nifty, but why bother? I prefer physical connections.
Feel free to poke fun and call me old fashioned.

I am keen as mustard for these as I absolutely love love love Korg Gadget and have been spending more time with it than Ableton Live lately after about 10 years of strict ableton fidelity. Hoping the latency is acceptable, but I already have an old iConnectMidi so either way it’s not a deal breaker. The demo song in that video truly is rubbish though, shame on you Korg.